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DIY Geometry Dice – A Fun Math Practice Tool for Kids!

August 30, 2018 by Selena Robinson 1 Comment

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Duck Brand® for IZEA Worldwide. All opinions are 100% mine.

Since we are teaching multiple children with attention issues, we always try to make our school lessons as fun and engaging as possible. Particularly when it comes to math.

Math is one of those subjects that kids either love or hate or possibly love to hate. Because our kids need to move around frequently to remain attentive, I wanted to find a way to help them practice geometry terms without forcing them to write the definitions over and over.

And that’s how we came up with the idea for geometry dice!

DIY Geometry Dice for Math Practice

These DIY math manipulatives only take a few minutes to make and they’re awesome for helping students develop geometry fluency while having fun and getting some much needed movement during the school day.

Read on to see how I used colorful Duck Tape to make our geometry dice and how to grab the printable dice templates you’ll need for yourself!

Make math practice into a play activity for students with this easy DIY Geometry Dice project! Perfect for building math fluency in upper elementary grades!

DIY Geometry Dice for Math Practice

Here’s what you’ll need to make your Geometry Dice:

  • Empty square tissue box (You’ll need one box for each die you want to make.)
  • Duck® brand duct tape
  • Printable Geometry Dice templates (These are available for free in our Subscriber Library. Sign up at the bottom of the post!)
  • Scissors
  • Glue stick

Making Geometry Dice for Math Practice

These geometry dice are designed to help students in upper elementary grades or early middle school grades practice recognizing and identifying basic geometric lines, angles, and shapes.

Printable Geometry Dice Templates

For younger students, you can use the set of shapes and angles with the identifying names. Have them roll the dice and call out the shape, line, or angle they see until they start to recognize them on their own.

Then switch to the dice templates with no labels to see if the students remember each line, shape, and angle.

Upper elementary and middle school students can use the Who Am I? style templates to try to identify each line, angle, and solid shape without seeing the pictures at all.

Using Colorful Duck Tape to Make Geometry Dice

When it was time to decorate our geometry dice, I was so excited to use Duck® brand duct tape to make them as bright and colorful as possible.

And let me just tell you: Duck Tape is nothing like you probably remember. It now comes in Color Duck Tape®  and Printed Duck Tape® – both of which are adorable and perfect for educators!

Patterned Duck Tape for Crafting Geometry Dice

For our geometry dice, I went with bright purple and this super cute blue, red, and green chevron Duck Tape. I knew the colors would make the dice even more fun and attention-grabbing for the kids.

Making Geometry Dice with Duck Tape

So – here’s how to make the Geometry Dice.

Start by wrapping the Duck Tape around one end of the empty tissue box. Since Duck Tape is made fairly wide, you’ll only have to go around the sides of the box three times or so to cover it.

Geometry Dice - A Simple Duck Tape Craft

After you wrap the Duck Tape around the tissue box completely in one direction, turn it upside down and wrap the remaining two sides the same way.

Finally, use scissors to cut the Duck Tape and press the open end closed. Easy peasy!

Geometry Dice Math Duck Tape Craft for Kids

Cut out the Geometry Dice templates you plan to use and use a glue stick to attach one to each side of the tissue box.

Printable Geometry Dice Duck Tape Craft

If you’re making two dice, repeat this process all over again.

Just a note about working with the chevron-patterned Duck Tape: It takes a little bit longer to decorate the box with it, because you’ll need to stop and align the tape to make sure the pattern is even.

Totally worth it, though, because it’s adorable.

Simple Duck Tape Teacher Craft - Geometry Dice

These are so fun for working on geometry. My kids wanted to play with them long after math class was over.

Scroll down to get your printable Geometry Dice templates – FREE!

Don’t miss these other ideas for teaching math!

Help kids practice adding and subtracting with these aquarium-themed arithmetic practice printables!

Sidewalk Chalk Outdoor Math Game

Work on recognizing even and odd numbers with your students using these Fall Leaf Even and Odd Practice printables!

To get your printable Geometry Dice templates free, sign up for our email newsletter! You’ll get access to these printables, plus lots more, in our exclusive Subscriber Library!

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Filed Under: Math Tagged With: fun math ideas, homeschool printables, homeschooling, math

Sidewalk Chalk Outdoor Math Game

April 14, 2016 by Selena Robinson 10 Comments

Now that spring is finally here and the pollen is (somewhat) subsiding, my kids have been itching to get outdoors! So it was a great time to link up with the Early Elementary Blogging Team to share some fun ideas for outdoor learning.

Math has been an issue in our family, especially since several of our children are living with ADHD. But with this easy sidewalk chalk outdoor math game, my active kids got some arithmetic practice done while moving!

If you love this hands-on math activity, be sure to see our list of math activities for kids with ADHD! There are plenty of hands-on math learning ideas there as well!

Get the kids outside and reinforce basic arithmetic with this sidewalk chalk outdoor math game! Awesome for active learners!

Sidewalk Chalk Outdoor Math Game

It took me about 15 minutes to set this up. But there’s a lot of bending involved, so prepare to use your back…lol.

What You’ll Need:

  • Sidewalk chalk
  • Giant foam dice

Outdoor Math Game Setup

What I did was draw a long squiggly line on our driveway and then another about two feet parallel from it. That way, I could make a game board.

Then I added horizontal lines every foot and a half or so.

Outdoor Math Game Board Layout

Finally, I filled each space with a simple math fact. I alternated addition and subtraction with multiplication and division.

Outdoor Math Game Dice Roll

The kids rolled the dice to find out how many spaces to travel.

Playing an Outdoor Math Game with Sidewalk Chalk

Then they walked to the correct space. (Just like a regular board game.)

Solving Math Problems in an Outdoor Math Game

When they got to their space, they worked on solving the math problem in the square. For my boys, multiplication and division are still pretty new concepts, so I talked them through it using how they relate to addition and subtraction. They seemed to pick up on it pretty quick that way.

Math Practice with an Outdoor Math Board Game

Learning to skip count is super helpful when it’s time to introduce division and multiplication. I saw proof of that in this activity.

Playing an Outdoor Math Game to Learn Arithmetic

And we kept on solving math problems until we reached the end!

Simple Outdoor Math Game

Get a look at more ways to make math fun for your kids!

Math Activities for ADHD Students

Fun Math Books for Middle School

Ways to Make Math Fun for Active Learners

And for more math ideas, follow my Math Mania board on Pinterest!

This post is part of the Early Elementary Blogging Team linkup! Check out some of the other fun outdoor learning ideas shared this week!

Ways to Learn Outdoors

Map Skills for Kids: Backyard Treasure Hunt from Life Over C’s

Nests Nature Hunt for Kids from Still Playing School

How to Make an Outdoor Mud Kitchen from Parenting Chaos

Outside Arrays for Multiplication Practice from Line Upon Line Learning

Gardening For Math Time from Preschool Powol Packets

Second Grade Math with Rocks from Sugar Aunts

Tree Unit Study and Science Experiment from Schooling a Monkey

Filed Under: Homeschool Math, Math Tagged With: active learners, fun math ideas, fun math learning ideas, hands-on math, hands-on math for kids, hands-on math ideas, homeschool math, math, math game, math games, outdoor fun, outdoor math game, sidewalk chalk outdoor math game

Hi! I'm Selena, a teacher and a veteran homeschool mom to four. I'm so glad you're here!
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